Part One
Part Two
Part Three
I'm going to try to explain, with a little more depth, with a little more clarity, what it means when I say "The characters tend to write themselves."
It is quite true and I recognize that it comes across quite nuttily. But it is true! The characters do tend to balk and get rather moody when I try to force them into situations that don't sit well them. It's almost as if they are physically resisting my pencil (or these days my stylus).
Of course, I arrogantly will try to throw my weight around as their creator and insist that I know best.
And it is always futile.
The farther off track I push them, the less they cooperate, and generally, as I said, I tend to wake up one day and acknowledge that I am defeated.
They win.
I'm force3d to agree that Mr. Spook would not say such a thing. This really isn't the way the Pod'l'pool Cuties would react to that particular situation. And I end up reworking the sequences until everyone is quite happy with me.
And of course, as I reread this, I recognize that this sounds either really pretentious or thoroughly insane.
Well, regardless, I think it does help make sure , in the end, that there will be better Beanworld stories.
6 comments:
No, that's neither nuts nor pretentious! Creating characters who are so real that they write themselves is a great story-telling achievement. Sure, these characters can be hard to wrangle into a story, but if you let them tell their own stories prepare to be be surprised.
[I say this as someone who's recently returned to role-playing games after a twenty year hiatus. When I wrote an in-character diary for one character, I realized afterward that he had quirks of speech I hadn't consciously added!]
I agree. The best writers are really only recording what their characters are doing rather than making it all up. It means the characters are more lifelike on the page if they are telling the creator how things are rather than the other way around. Beanworld comes to life for the readers because its characters have come to life for you.
Agree. The artist isn't just one thing, after all, I mean, am I right?
Beanworld is so alive, no need to concede anything or explain. so glad Neil Gaiman mentioned your blog on his today! I love your work.
It's exciting to see the media taking notice of Beanworld this time around. The whole landscape has changed with the advent of the internet, it seems to be very well suited to publicizing uniqueness.
I know that during the original run you either hadn't heard of Beanworld or it was your *favorite* book. It wasn't a love/hate thing, it was a love/neverheardofit thing!
I preordered the Holiday special today! ^__^ Anyone else in the UK who wants to do the same, check out Forbidden-Planet's site. (http://www.forbidden-planet.co.uk/acatalog/Beanworld_Holiday_Special_.html#aBEANWHS)
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